Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2020

Notes:
Veteran Indian journalist Yusuf Jameel, was chosen for and awarded the ‘2019-2020 PEN-Gauri Lankesh Award for Democratic Idealism’. The award was presented to him, for his revolutionary journalism in Jammu and Kashmir, during the insurgency period.
PEN International is a global association of writers, which was founded in 1921. PEN South India and PEN Delhi have instituted the annual award to cherish and honour the assassinated journalist and activist Gauri Lankesh. The award is offered to an individual or organisation, whose work demonstrates courageous and democratic journalism, on birth anniversary of Gauri Lankesh.

Notes:
As per the 2019 ‘Global Go To Think Tank Index Report’, Indian think tank Observer Research Foundation (ORF) has been placed among the top 30 think tanks globally, at rank 27.
The report is released by the Lauder Institute at the University of Pennsylvania. The list was topped by Carnegie Endowment for International Peace of the United States. Last year, ORF was placed at 118th position, more than 90 ranks below the current rank. The Raisina Dialogue, jointly organised by ORF is also ranked 7th best conference globally.

Notes:
The first-of-its-kind ‘fruit train’ of the country was recently flagged off from Tadipatri Railway Station of Andhra Pradesh.
The train carried a little less than 1000 metric tonnes of locally grown bananas to the Jawaharlal Nehru Port also called the gateway port in Mumbai. The consignment will be exported to Iran from the port in Mumbai. The entire train sent for export saved huge fuel and time, which would have been otherwise spent for the transportation to the port by road, which is 900 km away. Andhra Pradesh topped the country in fruits production in 2018-19, as per the recent data of Ministry of Agriculture.

Notes:
International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) has appointed Indian-American Arvind Krishna as its new Chairman. The 57-year-old leader is currently serving as the head of the ‘Cloud and Cognitive software unit’ of IBM.
He is known for playing an instrumental role in the acquisition of Red Hat by IBM, undertaken last year. He has also led the development of several advanced technologies by IBM including cloud and quantum computing. He replaces the long-time female CEO of IBM, Virginia Rometty, who will continue to serve as the company’s executive Chairman.

Notes:
The All-Party Parliament Group on Traditional Medicines recently organized a meeting at the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium. The meeting aimed at legalising Ayurveda in Europe and integrating it with their other healthcare systems.
During the meeting, Indian Ayurveda doctor, Dr.Pratap Chauhan was conferred with the ‘Ayurveda Ratan’ award. Several representatives and delegated attended the meeting including the Indian Ambassador to European Union, Gaitri Kumar. Ayurveda Day was celebrated at the European Parliament on November 21, 2018 for the first time.

Notes:
Pramod Agrawal assumed charge as the new Chairman and Managing Director of Coal India Ltd, a Maharatna Public Sector Enterprise.
Public Enterprises Selection Board recommended the name of the 1991 batch IAS officer from Madhya Pradesh cadre for the post of Chairman and Managing Director. Prior to this appointment, he was serving as the Principal Secretary for urban development and housing department in Madhya Pradesh. He replaced A K Jha, who retired as the chairman of Coal India Ltd on January 31, 2020.

Notes:
Famous Punjabi writer Jaswant Singh Kanwal recently passed away at his native village recently. His novels are loved by several readers across the country.
The novelist was a recipient of the country’s highest literary honor, Sahitya Akademi Award in 1977 for his famous novel ‘Taushali Di Hanso’. He has authored more than 100 novels, which mainly focus on agrarian crisis, caste barrier and women empowerment. He was also called as the ‘Writer of movements’.

Notes:
The World Wetlands Day is observed annually on February 2 across the world. On 2 February 1971, the Convention on Wetlands was adopted in the Iranian city of Ramsar. From then, the day has been observed annually on the same date.
The theme of this year’s World Wetlands Day is “Wetlands and Biodiversity”. Recently, 10 more wetlands of India are included in the ‘Ramsar site’ list. With this, India has 37 Ramsar sites totally, which cover more than 1 million hectares of area in the country.

Notes:
A National Level Rural Technical Festival titled ‘Antahpragnya 2020’ was recently organised in the state of Telangana at Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge Technologies-Basar (RGUKT-Basar). This is the country’s biggest technical festival.
The three-day technical fest was conducted with the theme ‘Spot and encourage rural tech innovators’. It hosted more than 200 technical events including Campus Farming competition, Robo Racing, Development of Ideal Villages and National Science Fair. Nearly 50,000 people from nearby places and institutions participated in the event.

Notes:
The Union Cabinet of India recently approved amendments to the Banking Regulation Act, which will bring multi-state cooperative banks under the regulation of the Reserve Bank of India.
This amendment in regulation is expected to prevent malpractices in the co-operative banks and ensure better regulation. The administrative role of the banks will be managed by the cooperative registrars. This decision is taken at the backdrop of the collapse of Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative (PMC) Bank last year. The banks would also be audited according to the norms stipulated by RBI.